This version of the linux kernel will not successfully wake from suspend mode. Your battery life will be significantly lowered because of this and the phone will lock up unless you setup the phones screen timeout to never.

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This version of the kernel also uses a keypad hack. The buttons layout is as follows:

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Aux left-hand upper button is the "back" key.

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Power button is:

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menu button when pushed quickly,

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end button when held for more than a second and released,

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power-off if held for 10 seconds.

Revision as of 03:42, 5 November 2008

Contents

Android on Freerunner

Google has released their open source version of the Android phone software distribution. In order to use it on the Freerunner, a number of patches need to be applied and a compiler with armv4 java exception support needs to be used to compile the software.

Compiler suite

Android is a little picky about the version of gcc compiler. It also requires some java exception support that isn't available for armv4 without a minor modification. The following tools are what I use to build Android:

Binutils 2.18

At one time I had some armv5t code that was compiled into Android which would cause the linker to generate these blx instructions which fail on armv4. I'm not sure if this is still necessary, but I still have the following change applied to binutils:

Images

Warning!!! Installation of Android requires loading a new kernel and rootfs image onto your phone. I have not had time to produce a version that runs completely off an sdcard.

Installation

As noted above, this installation requires you to wipe out the existing kernel and rootfs in NAND on your Freerunner. You also must have an SDCARD and it needs to be configured with two (2) primary partitions: First is VFAT/MSDOS (16 or 32) which acts as the /sdcard storage area for pictures, movies, music, etc. and the Second is an ext3 primary partition for use of internal Android /data area to store settings, caches, etc.

The first thing I suggest is to setup an SDCARD. You can flash the NAND first, but you must have an SDCARD with two partitions as stated before you'll be able to boot. I use a 2GB card which I have split in half. fdisk shows me:

Tools

You should be able to connect to the phone as long as you start it up with the USB connected to your host. I don't think it will work if you plug it in after starting. Some helpful commands are:

ADBHOST=neo ./adb logcat - like a tail -f of the android log
ADBHOST=neo ./adb logcat -b radio - same as above for the radio logs
ADBHOST=neo ./adb shell - bring up a command shell to the phone
ADBHOST=neo ./adb kill-server - kill the background server on the host

Known Issues

This version of the linux kernel will not successfully wake from suspend mode. Your battery life will be significantly lowered because of this and the phone will lock up unless you setup the phones screen timeout to never.

This version of the kernel also uses a keypad hack. The buttons layout is as follows:

Aux left-hand upper button is the "back" key.
Power button is:
menu button when pushed quickly,
end button when held for more than a second and released,
power-off if held for 10 seconds.

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Personal tools

Android on Freerunner

Google has released their open source version of the Android phone software distribution. In order to use it on the Freerunner, a number of patches need to be applied and a compiler with armv4 java exception support needs to be used to compile the software.

Compiler suite

Android is a little picky about the version of gcc compiler. It also requires some java exception support that isn't available for armv4 without a minor modification. The following tools are what I use to build Android:

Binutils 2.18

At one time I had some armv5t code that was compiled into Android which would cause the linker to generate these blx instructions which fail on armv4. I'm not sure if this is still necessary, but I still have the following change applied to binutils:

Images

Warning!!! Installation of Android requires loading a new kernel and rootfs image onto your phone. I have not had time to produce a version that runs completely off an sdcard.

Installation

As noted above, this installation requires you to wipe out the existing kernel and rootfs in NAND on your Freerunner. You also must have an SDCARD and it needs to be configured with two (2) primary partitions: First is VFAT/MSDOS (16 or 32) which acts as the /sdcard storage area for pictures, movies, music, etc. and the Second is an ext3 primary partition for use of internal Android /data area to store settings, caches, etc.

The first thing I suggest is to setup an SDCARD. You can flash the NAND first, but you must have an SDCARD with two partitions as stated before you'll be able to boot. I use a 2GB card which I have split in half. fdisk shows me:

Tools

You should be able to connect to the phone as long as you start it up with the USB connected to your host. I don't think it will work if you plug it in after starting. Some helpful commands are:

ADBHOST=neo ./adb logcat - like a tail -f of the android log
ADBHOST=neo ./adb logcat -b radio - same as above for the radio logs
ADBHOST=neo ./adb shell - bring up a command shell to the phone
ADBHOST=neo ./adb kill-server - kill the background server on the host